Traffic

Ch 30: Lost

        Peter gave her a smirk as he helped her into the car. Trace sat beside her. Peter drove them back to his house and opened the door for Kelly. He gently took her hand to help her out, but his hand was soon replaced by Trace's as he had to go open the house door for them.

        Kelly uneasily went inside and stood in the corner, waiting for Trace to get his bag from the car. Peter stood nearby, but left the room to tell his parents that they had company for the night. Kelly was nervous and scared, but she was distracted from that by a little girl who came down the stairs. She looked to be about six or seven years old.

        "Who are you?"

        "Kelly."

        "Are you the girl Petie's been seeing? The sick one?"

        Kelly's heart broke at the sound of those words, but she nodded, "Yes. I'm okay now, though. Just tired and a bit hungry."

        "I can help with that," she said, "I'm Tabitha. The kitchen is this way," she said, walking forward and taking Kelly's hand, dragging her behind her to the kitchen. Once in the kitchen, Tabitha opened the fridge and listed off a few things to eat, "Do you like Peaches? Or we have apples or sandwiches. I can make you a peanut butter and jelly?"

        "Anything sounds good right now," Kelly stated. She stood uneasily in the kitchen while Tabitha balanced bread, peanut butter and jelly in har little arms.

        She paused and looked at Kelly, "Sit down, it will take me a couple minutes to make it."

        Kelly nodded and sat at the table, looking around the little kitchen. It was creamy white with light brown wood accenting it. It had a little table and some stools by the counter where Tabitha now knelt, pulling out the bread and starting to make the sandwich.

        "She was right here--"

        "Where could she have gone?"

        Kelly heard the voices of Peter and Trace from the next room over.

        "She's in here!" Tabitha yelled out without looking up from her sandwich. Peter and Trace rushed in and saw Kelly sitting at the table. Tabitha looked over and said, "She was hungry."

        Peter laughed and kissed his sister on the cheek, "You're a saint, Tabitha."

        Trace sat beside Kelly and hugged her, "Are you alright?"

        "I'm fine. Tabitha offered to make me a sandwich, so I accepted."

        Peter smiled a kind smile, "Just for that, I'll send mum and dad to the store to get ice cream and brownies."

        Tabitha clapped and kissed Peter, "You're the best," she said happily. She then jumped down from her stool and ran over to Kelly, handing her a sandwich. "I hope its enough. You look really skinny. Do you want more than one?"

        "The doctors told her to take it easy for a while, Tabby, so one is probably enough, okay? Especially if we're having such a big dessert later."

        Tabitha nodded and skipped off to put the ingredients away.

        "Do you want to do anything, or just rest?" Peter asked from across the room.

        "I'd like to sit outside, if that's okay? And rest a while?"

        Peter nodded, "Of course. We can go in the backyard and sit in the hammock."